Intercultural Communication in the Workplace

Abstract

There is no secret that today’s workplace is rapidly becoming vast, as the business environment expands to include various geographic locations and span numerous cultures. What can be difficult however is to understand how to communicate effectively with individuals who speak another language or who rely on different means to reach a common goal?

Intercultural Communication in the Workplace

Today’s businesses are growing rapidly every year. The reason for this growth is the vast growth of population in America. People from all over the world are coming to America to make a better life for their selves. Because this country is so diverse, there has always been the importance of the job community changes with the times. This is great to the corporate community but, it also can be difficult too. The issues that occur with having a multi-culture workplace are the intercultural communication issues. One issue particular is linguistics. For example; I was an employee for Wal-Mart department store. I was an associate in the toys department, and I had been working there for few months prior to the issue. Christmas was approaching, and due to the busy season, Wal-Mart decides to hire more employees.

There were two female associates of Hispanic descent that were assigned to my department. As I tried to introduce myself to the ladies I notice one very important thing that neither one of them spoke English. The only words that they knew were hi, bye, no, yes, etc... I could not understand how Wal-Mart such a large corporation, hired people who did not know English. Rumor had it that because there were a great deal of Hispanic shoppers, that Wal-Mart needed Hispanic employees. The problem was when the English speaking customer would arrive, and need assistance they were unable to help them. The customers sometimes were so upset that they would walk away. The ladies would come to me or another English speaking employee and take our hands and point to the customer, and pull us to them. To me I preferred not to be touched in the workplace, and even though I knew she was just trying to make me understand it was still frustrating none-the-less. The issue